Going into the backcountry

May 26th, 2015

I woke up after a freezing night on top  of Owens Valley peak and looked at my map to see what lies ahead.  I noticed the Pacific crest Trail went a long way around these mountains and it would take all day to get to the trail that goes to Whitney. Then from there it would take almost a full day to summit the mountain. 

I decided that it might be possible to go on a backcountry route to get to the trail up Mt. Whitney. I would have to climb over maybe a couple of mountains to get to the trail. The problem was I didn't have a good enough map were I can see the elevation and the terrain.  If I could make it up and over a couple mountains theoretically I could get up Whitney a lot sooner. Also it would be a loop instead of going there and back.

So I got everything packed up and started climbing the mountain that was probably around 12000 feet high. It was slow going and there's a lots of rocks and boulders. It seemed like  every time I got to the top amount of a mountain I would see a higher peak. After about five or six hour hours of climbing I got to the the final peak and to my surprise it was basically straight down and was definitely not a route that could be done without ropes.

I had no choice but to find another way down. I ended up skirting the mountain and couldn't find a way down. So I ended up going back where I came from and hiked  probably 14 to 16 miles and didn't get anywhere. There were some amazing views and I think I went somewhere where probably no one ever went. 

Since I wasted a day and I didn't have a lot of food I decided that it's play better to skip Whitney. I continue hiking on the trail I saw the sign for Whitney. It said, "Whitney 8.5 miles" and I thought to myself that's really not that far. I thought more about it and I decided that it would be silly to pass up an opportunity to climb the highest mountain in the lower 48 states. So how you took the trail to the base camp area which is ranger station that has bear canisters and set up camp. Think about the mountain and my food. I quickly got tired and fell asleep.